“The Department of Food and Public Distribution directs traders, wholesalers, retailers, big chain retailers, and processors in all states and union territories to declare their stock position on the portal beginning April 1, 2024, and continuing every Friday until further orders,” according to the order issued by the Department of Food and Public Distribution on Friday.
In June of last year, the government mandated that the industry declare its equities and imposed a stock-holding restriction. India has begun harvesting its wheat crop, with both the government and private traders attempting to acquire as much wheat as possible for consumption until the next harvest.
According to a previous directive published on June 12, 2023, the Centre established wheat stock limitations until March 31, 2024 “to manage overall food security and to prevent hoarding and unscrupulous speculation”. In February of this year, the government decreased the stock holding cap again.
The inventories kept by the government agency Food Corporation of India (FCI) are close to reaching buffer stock levels, which are the minimum stocks that the agency intends to retain on a given day to ensure the country’s food security. The agency aims to increase wheat procurement to 30-32 million tonnes in the 2024-25 marketing season to meet the country’s food security needs, an increase of roughly 15-20% from last year’s wheat procurement of 26.2 million tonnes.
